ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, November 5, 1996 TAG: 9611050043
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: ROBERT FREIS STAFF WRITER
Social service departments in the New River Valley are finding themselves spread increasingly thin as caseloads increase while staffing levels remain the same.
It's a common strain across Virginia, where a recent state work efficiency study says that local social service departments are understaffed by an average of 25 percent.
According to that study, Montgomery County's Department of Social Services is even more understaffed, operating with only 65 percent of the workers necessary to handle its present workload.
Social workers in some counties are squeezed by more clients and more cases. It's also becoming more difficult to process paperwork that's ever more complex and time consuming, said Ellen Johnson, director of Floyd County's Social Services Department.
"We're seeing a drastic increase across the board," she said.
Department directors say their employees are working as hard as they can. "I see people going to heroic efforts to do the best they can within eight hours per day," said Jim Wallis of Pulaski County. "None of us can keep up with everything anymore."
The directors say the burden has resulted in job burn out and consistent employee turnover. "Morale is very low every day," Johnson said.
Despite the heavy caseload, clients have received all the services they're due - although in some cases there have been delays, said Dan Farris, director of social services in Montgomery County.
"It takes longer to work up a case. We're not going to get to you as quickly," he said.
Floyd's clients used to be able to walk into the department and see a benefits specialist. Now they're asked to make an appointment, Johnson said.
Farris said understaffing was a troublesome - yet moot - point as long as his department occupies its cramped office on Roanoke Street in Christiansburg.
"We're maxxed out here in terms of space," he said.
A new building for social services is complete but unoccupied as negotiations continue over how much the department will owe the county for rent. However, more room won't reduce workloads, Farris said.
Locally, only the Giles County Department of Social Services isn't overburdened and understaffed according to its director, Linda Boggs. She called that situation "a blessing."
Yet she joins the other directors in identifying more state funding as the key to alleviating the problem.
"They changed the rules but they didn't provide the tools," Boggs said.
Social services departments are funded by a combination of state and local revenue. But the overwhelming amount of local budgets comes from the state.
It's not realistic to expect financially strapped localities with limited resources to fund more social services staff workers, Wallis said.
Farris said an association of social service directors plans to lobby the General Assembly during the upcoming session. They'll be asking for an adjustment to the complicated state formula that determines how much state money localities will receive.
Until then, social workers will have to continue facing the pressure of tackling large caseloads in limited time.
"We work as hard as we can to get the job done under less than ideal circumstances," Farris said. "We're not advocating twice as many service workers as we have no. A couple of additional people here and there could certainly enable us to get on top of things."
Handling a heavy workload with a thin staff of public employees might be seen as a virtue among proponents of limited government, he acknowledged.
"I think we've shot ourselves in the foot. We've been too efficient," he said.
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